Fugitive
by koilike
Summary: Jinx has to lay low for a while after a recent bout of mayhem causes the Piltover Police Force to call in Demacian reinforcements, and Ekko is enough of a pushover to let her stay with him. A bored Jinx never leads to anything good and Ekko does his best to keep her from destroying his home, but eventually something's got to give.


Hi everyone I'm back with more lame romance stuff because these two are super cute and there aren't enough fanfics about them

This is gonna be a pretty shit contribution but hey it's the thought that counts right

Glhf!

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The crunching noise made by Ekko's latest prototype roughly resembled the sound of his soul shattering as he realized that he'd completely ruined the device by throwing it at the wall out of frustration. Running his hands through his hair, he let out a tense sigh; he'd spent close to three weeks working on a device to freeze time as opposed to simply slowing or rewinding it, and in a single second he'd undone all that progress by letting his irritation get the better of him.

A faint shard of hope remained as he walked over to the wounded invention that maybe it hadn't been completely ruined after all, but that hope was quickly dashed as he noted the broken glass and shiny blue liquid that coated the floor.

" _Damnit!"_ Ekko clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut to prevent him from doing something else that was stupid, like punching a wall.

"That doesn't look good."

Ekko spun around to see Jinx leaning on the side of the doorframe and lazily twirling a braid in one hand. "Jinx! How the hell did you get in here?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "You live in Zaun, it's not exactly known for its outstanding home security."

She waltzed in and plopped herself down on a faded green couch, a small puff of dust bursting into the air at the sudden weight.

"Okay, then what are you doing here? Don't you have, like, a city to wreck?" Ekko asked as he bent down and began picking up the shards of glass from the floor.

"Well ya see, that's kind of the thing," she began. "I got a _teeensy_ bit carried away and mighta, uh, blown up the town hall... _accidentally!"_ She quickly added at Ekko's outraged look. "But Hat Lady and her friends are really mad and they've ordered in a bunch of extra units from Demacia to try catch me, so I need a cooldown spot for a couple days and I figured since you live in a pretty lowkey part of Zaun they wouldn't be able to find me."

Ekko stared at Jinx blankly for a second before reminding himself that she did this kind of thing all the time, and honestly, blowing up the town hall was only a small fraction of what the maniac was capable of. "Jinx, look. I'm under a lot of stress, I'm really busy, and as much as I'd _love_ to harbour a fugitive on top of everything, I just don't really think I have room on my plate for that right now. Sorry." He turned around to continue tidying up the remnants of the device.

Jinx shifted so that she was kneeling on a worn-out cushion and facing Ekko, folding her arms and resting them on the back of the couch. He could feel her gaze drilling into the back of his head, so he grudgingly turned around to look back at her. "What?"

"Pleeeeeeaaase!" She moaned.

"No! I've got enough to deal with right now without getting involved in your police chase." He gathered the last few shards of glass in his palm before taking them to a rubbish bin, dusting off his hands and returning to his workbench.

"Just for a couple of nights! I'll even help you with your gadget-thingies so you're not so behind." Another intense stare fixed itself to him, and he sighed. He did know from when they were kids and lived together with Ajuna and the others that Jinx was a natural with mechanics and technology, so her offer was actually useful. Making weapons and other devices was Ekko's way of earning a living, and it kept him from being homeless, so it was vital that he didn't lose business. At the same time, he didn't want to get arrested if Caitlyn and her team found out that he'd taken Jinx in, but…

"Fine!" The word was out of his mouth before he had a chance to reason with himself.

"Yay!" Jinx bounced on her knees excitedly. "I promise nothing'll go wrong, maybe you'll even get the stick outta your ass and have some fun for once!"

Ignoring her comment, Ekko finished off tinkering with a more promising gadget; a teleportation device. It could only span about 10 metres, but Ekko had just figured out how to make it so that one could teleport through walls as well, making it a lot more useful in combat.

Winter had set in, and the sun had already started dawdling its way down the sky as he worked, now shining directly through the dirty window opposite the workbench. Not wanting to keep going with the sun in his eyes, Ekko placed the teleporter down and walked to the couch, grabbing Jinx's ankles and swivelling her around so she was no longer lying across the whole couch, and sat down. She shot him a glare and shifted back, draping her legs over his lap.

"Are ya done being boring now?" Jinx huffed. "It's lame enough being in hiding without having to deal with you being lame too. Besides, it's cold as hell right now, I don't wanna have to dig a hole outside to live in if I can avoid it."

"Look, just because I'm letting you stay here doesn't mean I'm obligated to entertain you. You're perfectly good at keeping yourself amused, so find something to do on your own- but no blowing stuff up in my house!" He added, knowing that he couldn't put it past her to go whipping her guns out without a second thought.

"Alright then," Jinx abruptly stood up. "I'll go for the next-best thing." She walked to the other side of the room and began opening cupboards, rummaging around for a few minutes until she pulled out a bottle with a triumphant cheer. Ekko knew it was alcohol before he even read the label; Black Lagoon Spiced Rum, apparently, from Bilgewater. He didn't actually even know that he had it, but trust Jinx to be the one to find something like that.

Would it be a good idea to let a girl of such manic tendencies to get drunk in his house? Not even slightly. Would it be hilarious to watch and give her shit about later? You bet.

Jinx cracked the lid off the bottle and returned to the couch before taking a large swig of the rum, grimacing slightly at the strong flavour. She took another a few moments later and held the bottle out to Ekko, who raised his eyebrows.

"You want me to be part of the wreck you're about to make out of tonight?"

She nodded, waving the bottle encouragingly. Ekko hesitantly wrapped a hand around it, glancing at Jinx uncertainly. He'd only ever had alcohol a handful of times, and never enough to really get drunk. The smell of the rum was strong enough that it wafted out the bottle; Ekko raised it to his lips and tilted his head back, swallowing a mouthful of the searing liquid. Jinx laughed at the slight gagging sound he made after drinking, taking the bottle back for another swig of her own.

"This is a terrible idea," Ekko sighed. "Is it irresponsible of me to let you have access to a full bottle of rum?"

Jinx flashed him a wicked grin. "Oh trust me, this is gonna be good."

The last watery streaks of the sunset had trickled down the horizon, and the room's deep orange glow was replaced by assorted white and yellow lights that Ekko had made out of spare parts to allow him to work through the night.

After getting about a third of the way through the bottle (which admittedly was mostly Jinx's work), Ekko felt warmth begin to course through his body. His vision became dreamlike, and all the work he had left to do became less and less important. Jinx seemed much more aware of things, although that was possibly just because she was always out-of-it to an extent so she didn't seem any different.

He'd stopped really paying attention to what was going on around him, instead trying to adjust to the sensation of intoxication, and it was only when Jinx pulled out some kind of grenades with… _mouths and teeth?_ and started trying to juggle with them that Ekko snapped out of his deepening trance.

He'd intended to stand up quickly and interrupt Jinx before she blew the house up- accidentally or otherwise- but unused to the effects of alcohol, he stumbled forward rather clumsily and latched a hand onto her shoulder for support. She lost her balance in turn, but managed to keep a loose grip on the grenades (which she admittedly hadn't been juggling very competently anyway).

"Thanks a lot, doofus! I was just getting into my routine!" She huffed, shuffling the grenades around to begin her routine again.

Ekko interrupted her, snatching up the grenades before she could start. "Remember what I said? No blowing shit up!"

"I'm not!" She protested, lunging forward as Ekko started to walk away, presumably to put the weapons somewhere out of Jinx's reach. Hit by the impressive volume of rum she had consumed, she lost her balance and ended up smacking into Ekko, knocking him over and in turn launching the grenades out of his hand. They both fell on the ground in a knot of limbs, with two of the grenades landing beside them, and Jinx raised her head to untangle herself from the mess only to get a paralyzing view of a now-activated grenade latch onto the wall with its teeth. In a second she was somehow back on her feet, eyes wide in helpless shock at the disaster she knew was about to unfold. Ekko was beside her a mere moment before the grenade exploded, blasting a hole in the wall and leaving smoking debris on the floor in its wake.

"Oops." Jinx mumbled after a few seconds of silence.

" _For fuck's sake, Jinx!"_ Ekko snapped, causing her to jump. "Why do you have to be so goddamn annoying all the time? Every time I'm near you all you do is screw everything up and you never even give a shit, and I'm the one left with the mess to clean up afterwards! I told you how busy I was and asked you not to go making things harder for me but you don't fucking care at all, do you?"

Jinx's already-porcelain face had somehow grown even paler over the duration of his rant, and she opened and shut her mouth like a fish, trying to find something to say.

"I- I'm sorry," she stammered. "I can fix it, I'll-"

"Don't bother, I don't want you making things worse." Ekko spat, picking up the other two grenades and placing them on a table in a corner of the room. Jinx didn't move, standing with her eyes down and wringing her hands nervously. She looked up at him as he turned back around, eyes wide and brimming with tears.

"I'm really sorry," she whimpered, "I never wanted to annoy you, I- I just didn't want you to be stressed anymore and I ended up making you hate me instead and-" she trailed off, suddenly seeming a lot smaller than her larger-than-life personality usually made her.

Ekko's heart sank slightly as he realized just how fragile Jinx was behind her flippant, brash exterior. Any genuine feeling she ever had seemed to overwhelm her, and given how much it had ruined her when Vi left their gang and forgot about their respective existences, it made sense that she had decided to keep her feelings as minimal a part of her life as possible.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, ignoring the still-smoking hole in the wall and flopping once more onto the couch. The bottle of rum was still about half-full, and he eyed it for a few seconds before deciding against drinking any more.

Jinx remained noiseless behind Ekko with her head tilted down. It looked like she was shaking.

"Hey," Ekko broke the silence a few minutes later. "I, uh- I didn't mean it."

After several moments had passed without any kind of acknowledgement, he lifted himself off the couch to go and speak to her more directly.

"You're just overreacting because you're drunk," he began, resting a hand on her shoulder to spin her around to face him. "I-"

He stopped short as he saw her, face pale and shining with tears. "Jinx?"

Suddenly he was stumbling backwards, quickly shifting a leg back to keep his balance as the blue-haired bundle launched herself at his chest.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled into him. "I'm really really sorry, I know I screw things up for you all the time, please don't hate me I really don't want you to hate me you're the only thing I have left please just don't leave-"

"Jinx." Ekko interrupted, putting a hand on her back and tilting his face down to rest gently on the top of the girl's head, which remained buried in his chest. He was met with an inviting smell, an unexpected floral scent with a hint of gunpowder, which suited Jinx perfectly.

She remained quiet, and he took hold of her wrists and moved her away from him slightly. Jinx looked up at him with wide eyes, still sparkling with tears.

"Let's get you into bed." Ekko kept hold of one of her wrists and started leading her towards his bedroom, but he felt a tug as she remained still.

"Come on," he said. "You're probably pretty tired already, and you ought to sleep this alcohol off or you'll feel like shit in the morning."

Jinx shook her head. "I'm fine," she mumbled.

"Unfortunately for you that wasn't a request," Ekko asked, easily picking up the slender girl and carrying her across the room. Jinx let out a long whine in protest but didn't struggle, and Ekko let her down on to the edge of his bed. "I'll go grab you something more comfy to sleep in," he said, leaving the room.

Not long later he returned with a glass of water in one hand and an oversized black T-shirt in the other. Jinx mumbled her thanks as she finished the water in a few seconds before handing the glass back to him, then turned and began removing the numerous buckles, belts and straps attached to her. Ekko went to refill the glass to put beside the bed for the morning and stopped short upon reaching the door, heat flushing his face as he saw a topless Jinx bend down to pick up her shorts and place them at the end of the bed. He whipped around so as not to stare at the almost-naked girl and risk giving the impression of deliberately watching her undress, and in doing so managed to smack the glass against the doorframe and spill almost half of the water on the floor. Jinx looked up at the noise, and tilted her head in confusion at the sight of Ekko's backside as he stood with the glass in his hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked quizzically.

"Uh, I didn't mean to walk in on you or anything, sorry, I just, I, uh, wanted to give you some more water in case you got thirsty and you were getting changed so I turned around to give you some privacy and I spilled the water by accident so I'll go and refill it now so just let me know when you're done changing and I'll come back-"

"It's fine," she cut off his rambling and snaked an arm around him, taking the water and placing it on the small table beside the bed. "We've known each other for forever, it's no big deal." Ekko turned around and immediately felt heat flood his face again as he was met with the sight of a very underclothed Jinx with her arms up, pulling the shirt down over her head.

She was right, they _had_ known each other since they were kids, but that was back when gender didn't matter, and her body was shaped the same way as his, and the only reason anyone paid any attention to that kind of thing in the first place was if someone had a really cool-shaped bruise or scab. This was different; they were adults now, and the sight of her bare skin was teeming with implications Ekko didn't have the first clue about understanding.

Having left the room again to change into his own sleepwear (and try to shake off the awkwardness of seeing Jinx in lingerie, which was somehow a lot different than seeing her in the revealing outfit she always wore), Ekko returned to the bedroom and grabbed an unused pillow from his bed.

"Where are you going?" Jinx called out as he began to head back into the main room with his workbench and projects.

"Well, there's something in my bed already so I thought I'd sleep on the couch tonight," Ekko quipped.

"You can sleep in the bed too if you want, it'll be freezing out there."

"It's not that big, I don't want it to be too crowded for you."

Jinx threw her pillow at him. "C'mooon, it's fine! You're letting me hide out at your place, the least I can do is let you sleep in here so you don't freeze to death."

Ekko swallowed, bending down to pick up the pillow. "Fine," he said, swinging it at her and leaving it on top of her face.

He climbed into bed rather stiffly, trying counterproductively to not seem uncomfortable or make the situation awkward. Staying close to the edge of the bed allowed him to not touch Jinx, who had placed the pillow back under her head and was now lying on her side facing away from him.

It was hard to tell just how much time Ekko spent staring straight up at the blackness above him, but it was long enough for Jinx's breathing to give away her sleep. Every now and then she let out a little snore or mumble, and she moved around a lot, which suited her personality. She flung her limbs out rather liberally, making Ekko's chest hitch every time her arm brushed his.  
 _This isn't weird,_ he told himself in what had become some kind of mantra. The thought had been repeating itself with decent vigor in his mind, but suddenly all thoughts stopped when a still-sleeping Jinx rolled towards him, wrapping a cold arm around his waist and nuzzling into his side.

 _She's freezing,_ Ekko thought as he ironically heated up. It was hard to tell why he was suddenly so uncomfortable being this close to Jinx, after all, they'd slept together all the time as kids with Vi and Ajuna to keep warm.

Something about seeing her like _that,_ he figured. He hadn't seen Jinx in anything but her usual outfit for years, and oddly the thought of her having grown up never consciously occurred to him before now. Especially now that it was just the two of them; Vi had an almost-flawless guise of not knowing the pair beyond trying to stop Jinx's destruction, and Ajuna wasn't even alive anymore. All the other kids they met when they were younger were only temporary comrades, but the four of them were never supposed to drift apart.

Ekko sighed and ran a hand through his hair, the slight movement prompting Jinx to bury herself closer into his side. What was their relationship now? He barely even saw her anymore; was it right to call her a friend still?

Questions without answers tumbled their way around his head for hours, following their way into his dreams when he was no longer able to hold his eyes open.

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Ayy I actually finished the first chapter look at me go

Not sure how long this one's gonna be, probably 3-4 chapters? I'll try to update consistently, feel free to send me anonymous hate messages if I don't eheh

Feedback and stuff is very appreciated! Thanks for reading 3


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